When General Partner Tiba Aynechi, PhD joined Norwest at the beginning of 2022, she set out to build a world-class biotech investment team to complement our existing expertise in medical devices, healthcare services, and diagnostics. Since then, the team has nearly doubled, expanding our expertise to therapeutics and biotech—a strategic decision stemming from our newest […]

Editor’s Note: The following is a transcript from the Norwest Nowcast above where the Principal of Norwest’s People Advisory shares four guiding principles for conducting a reduction in force (RIF) with compassion. Hi, I’m Laurie Tennant. I’m a Principal with Norwest Venture Partners and I advise our portfolio companies on all things HR. I’m here […]

At Norwest, an intentional commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is foundational to our team’s work. This belief is core to how we have operated for decades. We hosted a fireside chat with JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion) Ambassador Constance Wilson, Global Head of BEDI. Constance shared how she developed the BEDI program at […]

Our annual Talent & People Practices Benchmark Survey provides a comprehensive review of how Norwest portfolio companies are approaching people operations, talent acquisition, organizational development, and systems and tools. The results give us a glimpse into how companies foster culture, retain talent, and tackle shared challenges, yielding a critical touchstone for our portfolio companies and […]

Here’s the good news: data released in early 2022 reveals that there are now 627 venture capital and private equity firms that are majority-owned by women. This is an impressive 25 percent jump from the previous year, and positive news for women in private equity. But here’s the bad news: McKinsey reports that women still […]

We recently welcomed Dr. Zack Scott as a general partner to our growing healthcare team. Zack is an ambitious investor with decades of experience in the healthcare industry. Most recently, he was a managing partner and co-founder of Revelation Partners, a healthcare focused investment firm that specializes in secondary transactions. Drawing from his days in […]

  Teri McFadden is a Principal for Talent & Retention in Norwest’s Portfolio Services team. She has more than 20 years’ experience in leadership recruiting and human resources development. She offers her observations about why, when, and how startups can use retention equity as a compensation tool. Retaining top talent is an escalating priority for […]

DEI – diversity, equity, and inclusion – is widely discussed today in executive suites, boardrooms, and investment firms. And it’s not an issue for only large enterprises. Start-ups and rapidly scaling companies are also trying to figure out how they can adopt DEI best practices. But how do they go about it? Can they learn […]

Startups have always been environments of intense pressure. This became even more true during the pandemic. Dealing with the resulting stress and burnout is (or should be) a high priority for leadership in rapidly scaling companies. To get a perspective on stress, burnout, and other mental health issues, I held a virtual fireside chat with […]

Our journey began two years ago with a pledge. It was the summer of 2020 and Norwest was compelled to do our part to confront racism in the United States. We pledged to take action, committing to educate ourselves, to have the hard conversations, and to increase diversity and inclusion within our firm, our portfolio, […]

With Six Promotions and Two Senior Advisor Hires on the Portfolio Services Team, Norwest Expands Strategic Leadership to Support Portfolio Companies PALO ALTO, Calif. (May 4, 2022) – Norwest Venture Partners, a leading venture capital and growth equity investment firm, today announced that it named Lisa Ames as the firm’s first chief marketing officer and […]

Norwest recently welcomed Tiba Aynechi, Ph.D. as a general partner on the healthcare team. Tiba brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, having spent 11 years at Novo Holdings A/S, most recently as senior partner focusing on early- and mid-stage biotechnology, medtech and healthcare IT. Some of her top investments included Nkarta Therapeutics, Mirum Pharmaceuticals and […]

Features Jessica Yi

Features Ran Ding

“The only constant in life is change.” – Greek philosopher Heraclitus. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, people all over the world have been forced to embrace change like never before. Companies large and small have felt the weight of uncertainty as they attempt to navigate a new office normal, including a tectonic shift […]

When I first heard the term Imposter Syndrome, I was relieved—relieved that someone had put a name to something that I had experienced for decades. For so long, I thought it was just me. I remember the first time I felt like a fraud: freshman year of college. As I looked around and compared my […]

Change is happening. Our commitment has not changed. Last spring, our firm entered a period of deep inquiry that resulted in the formation of three DEI working groups across the firm: Investing, Hiring & Retention, and Portfolio Services. Where we started: We focused intently on moving the needle for DEI within our firm and the […]

Kathryn Weinmann, Senior Associate, Norwest Venture Partners Weinmann joined Norwest as a summer intern in 2017 while she was getting her MBA at Stanford University, where she led the High Tech Club, which connects students with educational and career opportunities in tech. She made full-time in 2018. To date she has sourced $40M in investments […]

Today only 1% of venture-backed startups have a Black founder and less than 3% of venture investors are Black, with even fewer controlling the $100B+ invested annually in the US. The challenge remains clear. Over the past several years, many venture firms have doubled down on diversity efforts, but progress can be slow without the […]

Stew Campbell, Partner, Norwest

2020 has been a forcing function for every company and every investor on the planet to rethink recruiting practices. The traditional model of recruitment involved travel, in-person interviews, handshakes, on-sites, and so on. Now that these practices have changed and continue to evolve, we spoke with founders from the Norwest portfolio to find out what […]

The moment at which a small business starts to scale is both daunting and exciting. The leadership team might have spent years planning to be a $20M or $100M+ business. Once that future is on the horizon and the company’s steady trajectory begins to accelerate, leaders are faced with a number of questions such as: […]

The following message was shared with our employees:  As part of our commitment to combat racism and increase diversity and inclusion at Norwest, within our portfolio, and in our industry, we wanted to share some of the latest actions we are taking and observing on Juneteenth. As a firm, we will continue to prioritize diversity and […]

It’s safe to say that none of us expected the year 2020 to roll out the way that it has. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered life as we know it not only in the U.S., but across the world. Like most things in life, the pandemic’s effects are multifaceted and intersectional. How much of it […]

The following message was shared with our employees and portfolio companies: We are writing to you today in the spirit of compassion and solidarity during this national time of reflection and uprising against racism. Our goal is to connect with you directly and share how we plan to help. This weekend, we connected to determine […]

Yesterday Glint announced that it has signed an agreement to be acquired by LinkedIn. These two companies are joining forces to achieve the shared vision of creating a world where people are happier and more successful at work. We couldn’t be prouder of Glint founders Jim Barnett and Goutham Kurra, who built an exceptional company […]

Sanish Mondkar realized something wasn’t right when his data points didn’t line up. He was looking at workforce engagement data and noticed that more and more people were looking for flexible hourly jobs at the same time that many employers were seeking hourly workers. What was the disconnect? The data paradox became Sanish’s obsession for […]

In today’s economy, one in three employees plan to leave their current role within the next 12 months. Needless to say, recruiting and holding onto talent is far easier said than done for HR professionals who are taxed with the talent shortage problem, and get little relief from current software tools in this highly competitive […]

The world of work is rapidly changing. In only a few years, the emergence of new cloud, mobile and AI-based technologies have transformed workplaces and entire industries by increasing efficiency and boosting productivity. But not all businesses have kept pace with the latest modern technology. Most of the innovation in workforce tech has focused on […]

We’re excited to announce that Scott Beechuk has joined the Norwest team, bringing deep experience in the increasingly vital field of cloud computing. The cloud touches virtually every enterprise these days. It’s not a stretch to say that companies that do not do business in the cloud soon will not do business at all. Scott […]

Four Diverse and Dynamic Entrepreneurs Our most recent Norwest Founders Series event featured four entrepreneurial women founders who are deeply focused on meeting customer needs while running and scaling their businesses. Our moderator was Fortune Magazine senior writer, Michal Lev-Ram. The companies and their founders represent a range of industries, approaches and wildly diverse concepts. […]

Although my evidence is largely anecdotal, I believe seeking help for mental wellness has become increasingly more acceptable, open, and available.  My peer group is both supportive of, and eager to learn more about ways to improve their and their loved ones’ mental health. Just the other day, a friend explained the new techniques she […]

Five Ways to Build Your Team for Sustained Success Startup-tested practices that apply to every growing business Getting the right team in place has never been more critical. At a time when the economic environment is uncertain and the capital markets are volatile, building the right team and establishing an organizational culture that fosters innovation […]

Recruiting has fundamentally changed over the last decade thanks to the rise of social media sites that offer unprecedented capabilities for networking and finding jobs through friends and colleagues. In a world increasingly dominated by computer interaction and data analytics, it seems like everyone is trying to figure out the easy way to identify and […]

Employer Branding to Candidate Engagement: What’s Your Killer App for Recruiting? We recently brought together 30+ human resources and talent management professionals from Silicon Valley for a candid conversation regarding how to create an authentic employer brand and candidate experience without burning through the HR budget. Kicking off the event was Stacy Zapar, founder of […]

Women earn about 60 percent of undergraduate and master’s degrees in the United States but hold just 12.3 percent of corporate board seats. This stark fact set the tone for the third Norwest Venture Partners Female Founders event, which focused on how women can build strong boards—and how they may position themselves to change the […]

Today we are recognizing those individuals who have made significant contributions to the firm’s growth and reputation, and have added strategic value to our portfolio companies. We’re pleased to announce the promotions of Dr. Robert Mittendorff to Principal, Sumer Juneja to Principal, and Lisa Wu to Vice President. These promotions reflect our ongoing investment in these talented individuals across multiple stages […]

This  post originally appeared on Entrepreneur. The boom and bust nature of Silicon Valley startups often results in entrepreneurs being viewed simplistically as “successes” or “failures” based on the outcome of their startups.  However, the real key to success is ones mindset, which allows entrepreneurship to be viewed as a journey rather than a distinct outcome. As Stanford […]